Page 14 - April 2008 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Bob Dancer: Video Poker
WA Bad Sense of Color
e are getting the outside of our house repainted. Our home is about ten years old and with the harsh summers here in Las Vegas, it’s time to redo it. Shirley, my wife, is well aware of my handyman skills, so it’s a no-brainer to pay someone else to apply the
paint. She saw a crew painting a house in the neighborhood, liked the way they worked, and hired them.
Shirley decided she wants a di erent color scheme this time around. I don’t care that much. So long as it’s within the acceptable guidelines set by the homeowners association (so we don’t have to redo it), it’s ne with me.
with her that the new colors are a big improvement. Just because I have no color sense doesn’t mean I’m stupid. If she likes the new colors, my life works better if I tell her I like them too.
Shirley asked me to “I see a lot of players, though, choose between two
Now to video poker. A surprising number of people have about the same video poker sense
other things where color is an important part. If someone asks me which of two things are prettier, I usuallydeferandaskthemwhichonetheylike.
I see a lot of players, though, who don’t let a complete lack of video poker acumen stop them from playing. Perhaps they think that it’s all about luck anyway or perhaps they don’t even know how badly they play. Surely they’ve noticed that they lose most of the time. And yet they continue to play, losing thousands of dollars a year. It’s okay to have a hobby, but this sounds like a very expensive one to me.
Possibly they don’t know that playing decent video poker is a learnable skill. It is. Learning with a computer program (I recommend Video Poker for
Winners) is very easy. A little bit of study will pay enormous dividends. And there are numerous books and Winner’s Guides for further study if you decide to go that direction.
Nobody can be good at everything. Everyone is pathetic at many di erent things. While everyone has a di erent “common sense,” mine tells me that if you are really lousy at something you should either take the time to get better or stop doing it.
Bob Dancer is America’s best-known video poker writer and teacher. He has a variety of “how to play better video poker” products, including Winner’s Guides, strategy cards, his autobiography Million Dollar Video Poker, and his two novels, including Sex, Lies, and Video Poker. Dancer’s products may be ordered at www.bobdancer.com.
di erent colors. ey’re who don’t let a complete lack of
both sort of beige or videopokeracumenstopthem as I have color sense. tan or light brown. For whatever reason, a Something like that. from playing. Perhaps they suited ace-ten looks the
ey looked the same to me.
“ e rst one has a little more taupe in it,” Shirley tells me. “Can’t you see that?”
“Tell me again what color taupe is,” I reply.
thinkthatit’sallaboutluck anywayorperhapstheydon’t even know how badly they play. Surely they’ve noticed that they lose most of the time. And yet they continue to play, losing thousands of dollars a year. It’s okay to have a hobby, but this sounds like a very expensive
one to me.”
same to them as a suited jack-ten, or they don’t distinguish between A♥ K♣ J♦ and A♥ K♣ J♣, or perhaps the 3-card straight ushes
‘JT9’ and ‘357’ seem to be approximately equally valuable.
Or maybe they don’t look at how much you get for full houses and ushes. ey sit down and play, whether it’s a pay schedule that gives them a chance or one that doesn’t.
Shirley rea rms what
she already knew: I’m
not going to be much
help here, no matter how
hard I try. So she calls
her girlfriend Gwen to
come by and help with
the color decisions. Six
hours after the colors are
decided, Shirley changes
her mind and noti es
the painter before the wrong colors are purchased.
In the grand scheme of things, my awkwardness at colors is neither better nor worse than some other person’s video poker ineptitude. But there is a di erence in whether we pay attention to this
slowness.
I do not put myself in position where a good color
sense is necessary. Shirley picks out my clothes and
Page 14
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
April 2008
She explains to me that one of the original colors she picked had too much red in it and the other had too much yellow. I’m having a little trouble picturing this as all of the houses in our development are various shades of brownish earth tones. But I agree
Video Poker with Bob Dancer